Kingeater's Castle
"An old voracity lives here, in the far reaches of the zee. The priests are long gone, but sacrifices are still made here. Perhaps you have come here to make a sacrifice. Perhaps the sacrifice is you."[1]
Kingeater's Castle is an abandoned, half-ruined citadel in the Sea of Statues.
Everything is Terrible
"A dead wind which blew from the north. A hungry sun rode the wind. It made of memories a castle. There are mirrors in the ice. A thousand doors and none. The end of the chain is horizon's beginning. Horizon's beginning. Your throat is bleeding."[2]
This castle at the end of the world can best be described in a single word: terrible.[3] Life naturally withers here, and its visitors find themselves saying and doing things they would not otherwise do, from brief bouts of violent thoughts, to being driven insane enough to devour everyone around them.[4][5][6] This phenomenon is most likely brought on by a feral and hungry force that resides here, called the Kingeater.[7][8]
The danger of this place has made it into a potent ritual site. Most of these rituals are known only through rumor and typically result in the deaths of all involved,[9] though a few may be lucrative; after all, the heart is destiny's engine.[10][11]
Give up your Past and Future
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"The Dawn Machine's radiations crackle. The Mountain glows, across the Continent to the South. Flukes roil irrigo in the zee. The wind staggers you - you lean into it, and barely keep your feet -[12] Storm roars its approval. In the pulsing depths of his throne-pool, the Fathomking raises a wine-glass. At the summits of the columns around you, one by one, the stone hearts of the Castle wake to thunderous life. The Kingeater has accepted your sacrifice."[13]
Long ago, a Traveller called Salt came to the Castle in preparation for going further East than anyone before them. No one travels East without a hole in their heart, however,[14] and so the Traveller decided to sacrifice their past and future to the Kingeater.[15][16] A haunted few speak of The Name-Which-Burns,[17] and its connection to this place; the Traveller is always returning, after all.[18][19]
The Kingeater's true identity is almost entirely unknown; it is even possible that they are Salt themselves, or at least a part of them. Salt used to be a rather hungry monarch, after all.[20]
